1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to retrievable bridge plugs and packers used to isolate sections of a well formation, and more particularly, to such a tool including a packer disabling tool wherein the packer and bridge plug are set using only right-hand torque and vertical pipe manipulation.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
While stimulating wells, it is desirable to isolate some sections of the formation from the treatment. This has been done in the past by such means as using drillable bridge plugs or chemical blocks. These have problems in that the bridge plug must be drilled out and may not be reused. Also, chemical blocks must be removed.
Another method of isolating formation sections is to use a retrievable bridge plug and packer combination tool. With such a tool, the bridge plug portion is set below the formation using left-hand torque, and the packer portion is then detached from the bridge plug and set above the formation using right-hand torque. A typical bridge plug used in such operations is the Halliburton Model 3L bridge plug disclosed in Halliburton Services Sales & Service Catalog No. 43, pages 2559-2560 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,063. The packer is either the Halliburton RTTS or Champ.RTM. packer, such as shown in the above-referenced sales and service catalog, pages 2563-2565. This general type of packer is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,944.
In using such tools in horizontal or highly deviated wells, the extra friction due to the dragging of the tool in the hole can sometimes result in undesirable disconnection of tool string elements during the left-hand rotation used in setting the bridge plug. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a tool with a separable bridge plug and packer which can be set without using left-hand torque.
The retrievable bridge plug and packer of the present invention solves this problem by providing a tool with a retrievable packer and a retrievable bridge plug, both of which are set with right-hand torque and vertical pipe manipulation. A packer disabling tool is used to prevent setting of the packer while the bridge plug is being set. The packer itself is the same as the RTTS or Champ.RTM. III packer described above, and the bridge plug in the present invention is basically the same as the Model 3L bridge plug described above except that it has been modified to be set with right-hand torque rather than left-hand torque.